


What Makes a Man

by FanficsandFeelings



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Angst?? Kind of??, Gen, Go easy on me this kind of broke my heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-09
Updated: 2017-04-09
Packaged: 2018-10-16 21:45:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10580100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanficsandFeelings/pseuds/FanficsandFeelings
Summary: Dick Grayson contemplates his life, and wonders what makes him great.





	

_ Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. - William Shakespeare _

 

This quote was something that, despite his annoyance, had stuck with Dick Grayson ever since his school days.

 

It often would creep into his mind when he was on patrol when the streets of Gotham were quiet and the sun was signalling the start of a new day.  He always thought long and hard about which category he belonged to, but could never come to a decision that comfortably fit him. 

 

He was, after all, born a Flying Grayson something that he found great pride and comfort in. Not many people understood his pride, to them being born into the circus, into a life of constant training and possible danger was tragic. But not to him. Never to him. He’d always loved it, that feeling of invincibility when he was soaring through the air like a bird, without a worry in the world. Light as a feather. All those people in the stands had come to see  _ him _ , to see  _ his _ family, the Flying Graysons. Nothing in the world could change how he felt about that. Not the whispers or the looks of pity or even the “poor boy, what a waste of so much potential” from overly concerned biddy’s who didn’t have anything going on in their lives. He felt that he was born great, that being a part of the circus, and a part of his family made him great. And he could nearly convince himself that it was that part of him that made him great, that was how he fit into the quote. Nearly.

 

But then he would think. He would think about Nightwing and all he had achieved under that mantle. He would think about the Teen Titans and all the missions he’s been in charge of, he was responsible for those lives, the lives of his friends, who had slowly but surely become his family. A family he got to pick. A family he could save. He grew up in the eye of the public and in the shadow of the Batman, but he flourished, under that pressure, he became a diamond, a hero. Someone he could be proud. Someone the public was proud of. Someone, he thought, his parents would be proud of. And that made him smile. It made him lightheaded and it made his heart swell so much so that he felt it could burst with happiness. He made a man of himself, a good man at that. A great one, if he would say so himself. He had achieved greatness in his short, but action packed life. So he would think just maybe that’s who he was. A man that had achieved greatness.

 

But before Nightwing, there was Robin. The boy wonder. Before Robin though, there was tragedy. He still remembers it. The death of his parents, sometimes he felt like he was the only one that did. Grayson. A name he kept. A name he cherished. A reminder that stuck with him his whole life. ‘What ifs’ and ‘could have been's’ swirled around his head sometimes.What if his parents hadn’t died? Could he have still been who he was today? Probably not. Life went the way it went. With the death of his parents, came the mantle of Robin. Beloved by Gotham City and beyond. It was a responsibility he loved. He loved saving people and chasing down bad guys. Sure, it was tough at times but in his heart, he knew it was his true calling. It was just an unfortunate fact of life that the only way he got to be Robin, was through the death of his parents. For all intents and purposes, the mantle of Robin, an iconic, a great one, had been thrust upon him in the midst of a tragedy. 

 

As Gotham City streets slowly started buzzing with life, these were the thoughts that Dick Grayson was thinking. Not pleasant, but not entirely unpleasant either. 

 

He lifted himself off the side of the building he was perched upon, getting ready to return to his apartment. From Nightwing to Dick Grayson. From life-saving superhero to devoted law enforcer. The two were no different in his mind. He would be there, either way, to help those who needed it. It was as he was thinking about this, out and about in the cold morning air of Gotham City, maybe it didn’t matter. Maybe he fit into all of the categories, maybe he fit into none. 

 

That single thought seemed to ease his mind as he jumped off a roof, flying like a bird, or perhaps like a Grayson, making his way from building to building, through Gotham City. Through his city. 

  
Robin was great, Nightwing was great, and Dick Grayson is great, no matter what.


End file.
